Digital Commons Network^™

Geosciences Newsletter- 2002, Department Of Geosciences

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol.1, No. 27

• Dear Alumni and Friends
• Faculty News
• Department News
• Core Lab
• Geosciences Departmental History
• Graduate Student News
• Awards & Graduations
• Alumni News
• Donations

Tmdls: Statistical Correlations Or Mechanistic Modeling?, Scott A. Wells, Thomas M. Cole

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In developing TMDL waste-load allocations for the Snake River-Reservoir system in Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon, determinations of the assimilative capacity of the system and the impact of pollutant reduction strategies has been performed using both a statistical-correlation approach and a mechanistic modeling approach. The system included the Lower Snake River, Brownlee Reservoir, Oxbow Reservoir, and Hells Canyon Reservoir with the focus was on Brownlee Reservoir.

The statistical approach used on Brownlee Reservoir divided the system into riverine and lacustrine zones. Field data were then averaged over season and location to provide statistical correlations, such as between total phosphorus (TP) …

Volcanic Mound Fields On The East Pacific Rise, 16˚-19˚S: Low Effusion Rate Eruptions At Overlapping Spreading Centers For The Past 1 Myr, Scott M. White, Ken C. Macdonald, John Sinton

Faculty Publications

Volcanic mound fields identified on SeaMARC II and HMR1 12 kHz side-scan data from the southern East Pacific Rise (SEPR) occur near overlapping spreading centers (OSCs) and migration traces of OSCs. The volcanic mound fields appear as a distinctive hummocky seafloor fabric due to side-scan backscatter reflections from clusters of moundshaped reflectors. The lack of growth of the mound fields away from the ridge axis, and their occurrence in association with OSC traces, suggests that mound fields form along the ridge crest near OSCs. Volcanic mound fields are found where 120 kHz side-scan and visual observations find fields of pillow …

Rapid Postseismic Transients In Subduction Zones From Continuous Gps, Timothy I. Melbourne, Frank H. Webb, Joann M. Stock, Christoph Reigber

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Continuous GPS time series from three of four recently measured, large subduction earthquakes document triggered rapid postseismic fault creep, representing an additional moment release upward of 25% over the weeks following their main shocks. Data from two M_w = 8.0 and M_w = 8.4 events constrain the postseismic centroids to lie down dip from the lower limit of coseismic faulting, and show that afterslip along the primary coseismic asperities is significantly less important than triggered deep creep. Time series for another M_w = 7.7 event show 30% postseismic energy release, but here we cannot differentiate between afterslip …

Seismic Cycle And Rheological Effects On Estimation Of Present-Day Slip Rates For The Agua Blanca And San Miguel-Vallecitos Faults, Northern Baja California, Mexico, Timothy H. Dixon, Julien Decaix, Fred Farina, Kevin Furlong, Rocco Malservisi, Richard Bennett, Francisco Suarez-Vidal, John Fletcher, Jeffrey Lee

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Geodesy can be used to infer long-term fault slip rates, assuming a model for crust and upper mantle rheology. We examine the sensitivity of fault slip rate estimates to assumed rheology for the Agua Blanca and San Miguel-Vallecitos faults in northern Baja California, Mexico, part of the Pacific–North America plate boundary zone. The Agua Blanca fault is seismically quiet, but offset alluvial fans indicate young activity. Current seismicity is confined to the nearby San Miguel-Vallecitos fault, a small offset fault better aligned with plate motion. GPS measurements between 1993 and 1998 suggest that both faults are active, with a combined …

Seismic Experiments Target Earthquake-Prone Region In Romania, F Hauser, C Prodehl, M Landes, A Bala, V Raileanu, J Bribach, James H. Knapp, Camelia C. Diaconescu, C Dinu, V Mocanu, W Fielitz, S Harder, G. Randy Keller, E Hegedues, R A. Stephenson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Early Deglaciation In The Tropical Andes, G. O. Seltzer, D. T. Rodbell, P. A. Baker, Sherilyn C. Fritz, P. M. Tapia, H. D. Rowe, R. B. Dunbar, Peter U. Clark

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Analysis of sediment records from lakes located beyond the glacial limit in the Andes has provided, for the first time, an independent assessment of effective moisture ( precipitation minus evaporation) and the timing of the last glaciation (1). Conditions were wet at the LGM and remained so until approximately 15,000 cal yr B.P. (2). However, deglaciation was under way from the LGM between 22,000 and 19,500 cal yr B.P., which reinforces the observation that deglaciation in the tropical Andes was primarily forced by an increase in mean annual temperature during a wet postglacial interval (3, 4).

Ua66/8/3 Geogram, Wku Geography & Geology

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by and about the WKU Geography & Geology highlighting activities of faculty, students and alumni.

Land-Use And Vegetation In Western Australia : Project Daw27 : National Land And Water Resources Audit, G R. Beeston, A Jm Hopkins, D P. Shepherd

Resource management technical reports

This report details a project to compile detailed land-use data for Western Australia, on pre-European and present vegetation types, and aspects of disturbance of or threats to the present vegetation. Metadata on botanical surveys throughout the state were also compiled.

Hierarchical Geostatistics And Multifacies Systems: Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site, Boise, Idaho, Warren Barrash, Tom Clemo

CGISS Publications and Presentations

The geostatistical structure of a heterogeneous coarse fluvial aquifer is investigated with porosity data derived from neutron logs at a research well field (Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site, or BHRS) that was designed, in part, to support three-dimensional geostatistical analysis of hydrologic and geophysical parameters. Recognizing that the coarse fluvial deposits include subdivisions (units between bounding surfaces), we adopt a hierarchical approach and examine the porosity geostatistics of the aquifer at three scales. At the BHRS, the saturated fluvial deposits as a whole (maximum interwell spacing ~80 m, thickness ~16–18 m) are at hierarchical level 1; five subhorizontal units within these …

Earth News, V26, Fall 2002, Department Of Earth Science, University Of Northern Iowa.

Earth News

Inside this issue:

--- Earth Science Staff Activities
--- STORM Curriculum Development Update
--- Earth Science Majors
--- Earth Science Student Assistants
--- Earth Science Seminar Series
--- Sigma Gamma Epsilon - Gamma Sigma Chapter
--- Summer 2002 Field Course "Paleontology in the Canadian Rockies"
--- Studies in the Geology of Iowa for Teachers
--- Workshop Teaches Educators the Value of Aggregates
--- Quarry Open House is a Smash Hit
--- 2002 Earth Science Graduates
--- Student Internships
--- Student Research Presentations
--- Gifts to the Department of Earth Science
--- 2002-2003 Scholarship and Award Recipients
--- President Bush Meets …

Phillips Brook Catchment Appraisal, Paul D. Galloway

Resource management technical reports

This report describes the soils, hydrology and natural vegetation of the Phillips Brook catchment near Toodyay, Western Australia and provides information on the threats to agriculture, infrastructure and natural resources from salinity, waterlogging, erosion and other land degradation processes.

Pasture Condition Guides For The Pilbara, A L. Payne, A A. Mitchell

Agriculture reports

These pasture condition guides are relevant to about 192 000 square kilometres of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The rangeland of the Pilbara can be separated into 12 very broad pasture types. The ‘pasture type’ is not strictly a botanical classification because, in determining such a class of pastoral lands, the perennial plant species that contribute to stock production have an over-riding importance. Even so, each pasture type represents a broad group of similar vegetation associations or ‘site types’ which will have similar management requirements for pastoralism. The aim of this publication is to provide pastoralists with descriptions and …

Seismic Cycle And Rheological Effects On Estimation Of Present-Day Slip Rates For The Agua Blanca And San Miguel-Vallecitos Faults, Northern Baja California, Mexico, Timothy H. Dixon, J. Decaix, F. Farina, K. Furlong, Rocco Malservisi

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Geodesy can be used to infer long‐term fault slip rates, assuming a model for crust and upper mantle rheology. We examine the sensitivity of fault slip rate estimates to assumed rheology for the Agua Blanca and San Miguel‐Vallecitos faults in northern Baja California, Mexico, part of the Pacific–North America plate boundary zone. The Agua Blanca fault is seismically quiet, but offset alluvial fans indicate young activity. Current seismicity is confined to the nearby San Miguel‐Vallecitos fault, a small offset fault better aligned with plate motion. GPS measurements between 1993 and 1998 suggest that both faults are active, with a combined …

Seismotectonics Of The Explorer Region, Jochen Braunmiller, John Nábělek

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The Explorer region offshore western Canada is a tectonically complex area surrounded by the Pacific, North America, and Juan de Fuca plates. Existing tectonic models for the region differ fundamentally. Proposed plate configurations range from multiple independent plate fragments to an Explorer plate now fused to North America along the continental margin and cut by Pacific–North America transform faults in the west. We present new seismological data constraining the region's current tectonics. We use three-component regional waveforms to determine the source parameters of 84 earthquakes with magnitude greater than 4. Combined with 34 Harvard centroid moment tensor solutions, they represent …

Whole Mantle Shear Structure Beneath The East Pacific Rise, Timothy I. Melbourne, Donald V. Helmberger

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We model broadband seismograms containing triplicated S, S², and S³ along with ScS to produce a pure path one‐dimensional model extending from the crust to the core‐mantle boundary beneath the East Pacific Rise. We simultaneously model all body wave shapes and amplitudes, thereby eliminating depth‐velocity ambiguities. The data consist of western North American broadband recordings of East Pacific Rise (EPR) affiliate transform events that form a continuous record section out to 82° and sample nearly the entire East Pacific Rise. The best fitting synthetics contain attenuation and small changes in lithospheric thickness needed to correct for …

Late Quaternary Slip Rates Across The Central Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, Stephen C. Thompson, Ray J. Weldon, Charles M. Rubin, Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov, Peter Molnar, Glenn W. Berger

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Slip rates across active faults and folds show that late Quaternary faulting is distributed across the central Tien Shan, not concentrated at its margins. Nearly every intermontane basin contains Neogene and Quaternary syntectonic strata deformed by Holocene north‐south shortening on thrust or reverse faults. In a region that spans two thirds of the north‐south width of the central Tien Shan, slip rates on eight faults in five basins range from ∼0.1 to ∼3 mm/yr. Fault slip rates are derived from faulted and folded river terraces and from trenches. Radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence, and thermoluminescence ages limit ages of terraces and …

Development And Implementation Of A Comprehensive Lake And Reservoir Strategy For Nebraska As A Model For Agricultural Dominated Ecosystems, John C. Holz, James W. Merchant, Anatoly A. Gitelson, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Kyle D. Hoagland, Istvan Bogardi, Donald C. Rundquist

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

In agriculturally dominated regions, land use practices have an unusually large impact on water bodies and, therefore, land use may reduce the utility of current ecoregion-based approaches to lake classification by dampening the signals that underlie the ecoregion framework. A team of water quality researchers has been assembled to develop a comprehensive classification scheme for agriculturally dominated ecosystems, using Nebraska as a highly representative model. Three objectives critical to achieving this goal are to establish: (1) a protocol for aggregating water bodies in agricultural ecosystems into classification strata and identifying reference conditions for these classes; (2) the role of remote …

Field Trip Guide (For The Nebraska Well Drillers Association) Central Nebraska Geology, James W. Goeke, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Duane A. Eversoll

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Field trip guide, for the Nebraska Well Drillers Association, covering Central Nebraska Geology from September 2002.

Preliminary Geochemical Evaluation Of Groundwaters From Wells Of The Nye County Early Warning Drilling Program, Irene Farnham, Klaus J. Stetzenbach, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

As part of the Yucca Mountain Oversight program, the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office (NWRPO) has established a groundwater monitoring program to protect groundwater resources for the residents of Nye County in Amargosa and Pahrump Valleys. This groundwater monitoring program, referred to as the Nye County Early Warning Drilling Program (NCEWDP), involves drilling a series of wells down-gradient from Yucca Mountain for long term groundwater monitoring and also to provide much needed geologic and hydrologic information in this area. A comprehensive database of aquifer parameters in the alluvial, volcanic, and carbonate aquifers down-gradient hydrogeologically of Yucca Mountain is …

A Mechanical System For Soil Reconstruction, John Patrick Fulton, Larry G. Wells, Timothy D. Smith

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the most perplexing problems associated with reclaiming surface–mined lands is excessive compaction of soil due to the heavy earthmoving equipment used during the reclamation process. Over the years, some innovative material handling schemes have been devised to limit vehicle traffic during reclamation on reconstructed soil. However, final grading operations can often create root–limiting bulk densities, which affect plant growth and yield. The purpose of this article is to describe a mechanism designed at the University of Kentucky whereby mine soil can be reconstructed without introducing compaction caused by surface traffic in order for the soil to sustain desirable …

Effects Of Grand-Cycle Cessation On The Diagenesis Of Upper Cambrian Carbonate Deposits In The Southern Appalachians, U.S.A, Bosiljka Glumac, Kenneth R. Walker

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

The vertical transition from the mainly subtidal alternating shale and carbonate units (or grand cycles) of the Conasauga Group (Middle to Upper Cambrian) to the peritidal dolostone of the Knox Group (Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician) marks a major change in the early Paleozoic passive-margin sedimentation of the southern Appalachians. The grand cycles represent an interplay between intrashelf shale basin and carbonate-platform deposition. The end of grand-cycle deposition occurred in response to carbonate platform progradation over the infilled intrashelf basin and is associated with a prominent change in diagenetic patterns observed in the uppermost Conasauga Group strata-the Maynardville Formation. The …

Field Guide To The Geology Of The Harlan County Lake Area, Harlan County, Nebraska, With A History Of Events Leading To Construction Of Harlan County Dam, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Duane R. Mohlman, R. George Corner, F. Edwin Harvey, K. J. Warren, Scott Summerside, Roger K. Pabian, Duane A. Eversoll

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The year 2002 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of completion of the Harlan County Dam and Multi-Purpose Reservoir. This seems a good time to write about the history of and reasons for building the dam, the effects of the dam and reservoir on the Republican River valley, and the geologic features seen along the shores of the lake and areas nearby. As many junior authors helped produced this educational circular, they are listed in the table of contents. All other sections were written by the senior author.

Includes July 2016 update: Addendum of photographs showing fault traces on drought-exposed lake …

Correlation Between Volcanic And Tectonic Segmentation Of Fast-Spreading Ridges: Evidence From Volcanic Structures And Lava Flow Morphology On The East Pacific Rise At 9˚-10˚N, Scott M. White, Rachel M. Haymon, D J. Fornari, Michael R. Perfit, Ken C. Macdonald

Faculty Publications

Combined analyses of volcanic features in DSL-120 sonar data and Argo I images along the ridge crest of the East Pacific Rise, 9_090–540N reveal a consistent decrease in inferred lava effusion rate toward the ends of third-order segments. The correlation of tectonic segmentation and volcanic style suggests that third-order segmentation corresponds to the volcanic segmentation of the ridge. Along-axis changes in volcanic structures (from collapse troughs to basaltic lava domes) and lava morphology (from sheet to pillow flows) coincide with the boundaries of morphologically defined third order tectonic segments of the ridge crest visible in shipboard multibeam bathymetry. Pillow lava …

Karst Aquifers As Atmospheric Carbon Sinks: An Evolving Global Network Of Research Sites, Chris Groves, Joe Meiman, Joel Despain, Liu Zaihua, Daoxin Yuan

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Karst flow systems formed in carbonate rocks have been recognized as a sink for atmospheric carbon that originates as gaseous carbon dioxide and ends up as dissolved aqueous carbon, primarily as bicarbonate. While measurements of the magnitude of the sink associated with carbonate rock dissolution have assumed that half of the dissolved inorganic carbon leaving a given catchment comes from the mineral and half from the atmosphere, consideration of the kinetics of carbonate mineral dissolution in acid solutions suggests that the ratio is enriched in mineral-source carbon to an extent that depends on the geochemical environment of mineral/fluid contact. After …

Effectiveness Of Frightening Devices For Reducing Deer Damage In Cornfields, Jason M. Gilsdorf

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Availability Of Organochlorides And Accumulation In Populations Of Tadarida Brasiliensis (Free-Tailed Bat) And Eptesicus Fuscus (Big Brown Bat), Michelle Lee Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Organochlorides were historically effective in controlling a wide range of pests. However, organochlorides have proved to present many problems to the health and welfare of other organisms. Due to these problems, especially declines in wildlife populations, organochlorides were restricted in the 1970's and a majority of them were banned in the mid to late 1980's. The effects of organochlorides on bats such as Tadarida brasiliensis and Eptesicus fuscus have been intensively studied. The effects can range from problems with reproduction to mortality. My analysis of populations of T. brasiliensis and E. fuscus showed that organochlorides are still present in the …

Using The Index Of Biotic Integrity Of Fish Communities To Evaluate Habitat Quality In Middle Chattahoochee River Tributaries, Theodor W. Roever

Theses and Dissertations

An ichthyological survey was conducted within the lower Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain physiographic regions of the middle Chattahoochee River drainage basin between August 1998 and September 2000. Sampling was conducted by Columbus State University (CSU) under contract to Columbus Water Works for the purpose of obtaining biological measurements of watershed health. Objectives of the survey were the establishment of a data baseline of IBI scores for this ecoregion and to ascertain if there was a correlation between the IBI score and human influence. The thesis to be tested is: 'Fish community IBI scores of different watersheds within the Middle …

A Regional Gis-Based Analysis Of Elk Habitat Suitability In Northeast Nebraska, J W. Fisher

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Light And Nutrients On Atrazine Toxicity To Freshwater Algae, Crystal J. Hansen

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

No abstract provided.